11/11/2020

Elysium
858 Reviews

Elysium
Top Review
9
A potpourri of zillion's elements
With Giorgio Beverly Hills Red for Men, my search for explosive scents of the last century continues. I was close to thirty when this perfume hit the market, but I didn't have much money, and I hadn't started collecting perfumes yet despite my innate passion. I remember that my first Giorgio Beverly Hills perfume was Wings for Men, of which I jealously keep the bottle and some precious drops of it. So, when I came across Giorgio di Beverly Hills Red for Men on an online site the other day, I thought the bottle was beautiful but, oh lord! You can't imagine my surprise when I smelled it. It was a flashback in time. Back to the 1980s! Big padded shoulders, great electronic disco music, the rivalry between the Spands and the Duran, excellent T.V. series like Dallas and Dynasty, and above all, great perfumes! Red was a truly wonderful surprise. Not loud, not pushy, not smelly. But quite a delightful, classy leather fragrance that arrests my senses and delights me and everyone who comes close enough to smell! Yes, I can assure it is quite polished and sumptuous—old school in a way but not harsh or dated to me. There are similarities to scents like Givenchy's Xeryus, Ralf Loren's Polo, Puig's Quorum, and Guy Laroche's Drakkar Noir, with its soapy clean top notes: all bold, complex, mossy, exuding a cheeky mix of all kinds of exotic and floral spices, warm amber, and musky base.
It is a duplicitous perfume, or even more; for some people, it looks like chypre, or fougère, or leathery, or woody, or spicy, or whatever you want. Well, call it whatever you like, but the gist doesn't change: Red is an ancient fairy tale, one that is no longer heard today. Anyhow, this perfume defies labels. This fragrance seems to polarize its audience. I am a little astonished by the creamy notes that initially are difficult to discern. But then I realized that this complexity is probably the result of their being very well mixed.
On me it opens with an explosion of aromatic accords, there is herbaceous artemisia, with green basil, a bite of citrus. The bergamot is brilliant and a lot, really a lot of cumin, which somehow transmits the smell of the sequoia bark in a humid, temperate rainforest in northern California. I've never been to California, but I like this association with my image of multicoloured forests in the fall. Cumin ensures a sweat-like smell that implies manhood. Sharp mugwort and bergamot are sweetened with sweet basil, and citrus tones as the whole quickly switch to more flowers. The initial stage is green, leaning towards soapy and aromatic, my mind remembers another cologne I should know well, which I have smelled several times and maybe even used, but I can't remember it right now.
A floral and spicy bouquet reveals the heart of the fragrance, the retro peppery carnation, luxurious and dewy jasmine, geranium leaves, juniper berries, keep it still manly against the petals of a fragrant rose and again aromatic thyme. This combination is soft and enveloping but soon meets the rising notes of the dry base.
And it is precisely in the dry down that we encounter a smooth and shiny leather akin to polo boots that warm up in the sun in the old fields near the sea. Cedarwood, dirty patchouli, oakmoss and sweet amber further warm the skin, a mix of the late afternoon feeling in the wooded hills around the old polo fields. Again, I like to think of that wonderful smell you get on hot afternoons in Southern California when the heat carries the scent of the semi-tropical plants growing there, as well as heat in countries like Italy and Greece brings with it the aroma of fig trees. From there, we get a fat accord of oakmoss and patchouli, a touch of leather, and the rich amber, to let you know this is still a chypre for men.
It wears so well and projects perfectly. The sillage is noticeable and collects some comments, always positive. It's a great fragrance, and it's better than most of the recent faint releases that last less than a blink of an eye. A great value! I suggest taking the opportunity once in a while and trying something you never imagined you wanted. You may find that Red somehow seems a bit of a rarity in this world of clones that all revolve around the ambroxan. I see this has an old school vibe, but still cool enough to be worn today. It can turn cloying if over-applied or used in the summer, so limit this floral sweet to cooler nights and days, autumn and winter are perfect. Red is now back in manufacture and costs less than a big tasty menu at a McDonald's. Red conveys a softness that few other '90s male orientals have ever dared, moving into a higher atmosphere of mature masculinity.
This review bases upon a 100 ml (3.4 fl. oz.) I own since November 2020.
-Elysium
It is a duplicitous perfume, or even more; for some people, it looks like chypre, or fougère, or leathery, or woody, or spicy, or whatever you want. Well, call it whatever you like, but the gist doesn't change: Red is an ancient fairy tale, one that is no longer heard today. Anyhow, this perfume defies labels. This fragrance seems to polarize its audience. I am a little astonished by the creamy notes that initially are difficult to discern. But then I realized that this complexity is probably the result of their being very well mixed.
On me it opens with an explosion of aromatic accords, there is herbaceous artemisia, with green basil, a bite of citrus. The bergamot is brilliant and a lot, really a lot of cumin, which somehow transmits the smell of the sequoia bark in a humid, temperate rainforest in northern California. I've never been to California, but I like this association with my image of multicoloured forests in the fall. Cumin ensures a sweat-like smell that implies manhood. Sharp mugwort and bergamot are sweetened with sweet basil, and citrus tones as the whole quickly switch to more flowers. The initial stage is green, leaning towards soapy and aromatic, my mind remembers another cologne I should know well, which I have smelled several times and maybe even used, but I can't remember it right now.
A floral and spicy bouquet reveals the heart of the fragrance, the retro peppery carnation, luxurious and dewy jasmine, geranium leaves, juniper berries, keep it still manly against the petals of a fragrant rose and again aromatic thyme. This combination is soft and enveloping but soon meets the rising notes of the dry base.
And it is precisely in the dry down that we encounter a smooth and shiny leather akin to polo boots that warm up in the sun in the old fields near the sea. Cedarwood, dirty patchouli, oakmoss and sweet amber further warm the skin, a mix of the late afternoon feeling in the wooded hills around the old polo fields. Again, I like to think of that wonderful smell you get on hot afternoons in Southern California when the heat carries the scent of the semi-tropical plants growing there, as well as heat in countries like Italy and Greece brings with it the aroma of fig trees. From there, we get a fat accord of oakmoss and patchouli, a touch of leather, and the rich amber, to let you know this is still a chypre for men.
It wears so well and projects perfectly. The sillage is noticeable and collects some comments, always positive. It's a great fragrance, and it's better than most of the recent faint releases that last less than a blink of an eye. A great value! I suggest taking the opportunity once in a while and trying something you never imagined you wanted. You may find that Red somehow seems a bit of a rarity in this world of clones that all revolve around the ambroxan. I see this has an old school vibe, but still cool enough to be worn today. It can turn cloying if over-applied or used in the summer, so limit this floral sweet to cooler nights and days, autumn and winter are perfect. Red is now back in manufacture and costs less than a big tasty menu at a McDonald's. Red conveys a softness that few other '90s male orientals have ever dared, moving into a higher atmosphere of mature masculinity.
This review bases upon a 100 ml (3.4 fl. oz.) I own since November 2020.
-Elysium